
Polluted water from the mine
Margaret Molomo
Communities from ga Kgubudi and Masodi Villages are complaining about polluted water that flows from Ivanplats mine, the mine is situated right inside the villages. These villages surround a mine that has built a water pollution control dam at the wrong site inside the mine wall. This leads to failure to control polluted water from the mine to the dam. When the dam is full, it channels polluted water to the community, and that leads to floods in households within the community. The underground water of most boreholes near the mine is contaminated.
The contaminated water is causing damage to the crops in the community food gardens within households and the death of Livestock. Affected Community members were forcefully removed by traditional leaders in cahoots with the mining company. We went to the Department of Land Reform to complain, but we never got positive results on this matter. Community members had opened cases against the mine when this problem started in January 2024. They are carrying the hope that their issue will be resolved but even today there is no help.
When the community members go to traditional leaders, they do not get help. We agreed to write a letter to the traditional leaders requesting a meeting with them. In Mokopane, traditional leaders are selling the land subjecting communities to suffer social and environmental injustices from the mine. They have sold the whole area that was used for agricultural purposes. This was done without the community’s consent and that is in direct violation of the FPIC act.